Botanical/commercial classification: Persea americana Mill./Avocado Tree.
Varietal denomination: cv. xe2x80x983-29-5xe2x80x99.
The invention relates to new and distinct variety of Avocado tree that is named xe2x80x983-29-5xe2x80x99.
The seed that produced the new variety of the present invention was collected in 1985 from open-pollinated avocado trees of the xe2x80x98Gwenxe2x80x99 variety (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 5,298) growing at Riverside and Irvine, Calif. The exact pollen parent is unknown. Seeds were planted in a test planting area at Ventura County, Calif. to produce avocado seedings in the spring of 1986. The resulting seedling plants were observed and studied and a single plant of the new variety was discovered. Had the new variety not been discovered and carefully preserved it would have been lost to mankind. During about 1992 at the Southcoast Research and Extension Center of the University of California located at Irvine, Calif., the new variety was first top worked by grafting on Persea americana seedlings. This and subsequent asexual propagation has confirmed that the new variety is stable and that the progeny are formed true to type.
It was found that the new variety of the present invention exhibits the following combination of characteristics:
(a) exhibits a vigorous moderately-spreading upright growth habit,
(b) is less alternate bearing than the xe2x80x98Hassxe2x80x99 variety (non-patented in the United States) and fruits well every year,
(c) forms ellipsoid-shaped generally black-skinned fruit that is well distributed around the tree which lacks shoulders, commonly is larger than that of the xe2x80x98Hassxe2x80x99 variety, and matures at approximately the same time as the fruit of the xe2x80x98Hassxe2x80x99 variety having yellow-green flesh of excellent eating quality that is free of obvious fibers,
(d) forms leaves in greater quantity than the xe2x80x98Hassxe2x80x99 variety that are similar in appearance to those of the xe2x80x98Hassxe2x80x99 variety, and
(e) displays moderate resistance to the Persea mite.
The new xe2x80x983-29-5xe2x80x99 variety can be distinguished from all previously known avocado varieties including the xe2x80x98Hassxe2x80x99 variety, the xe2x80x98Gwenxe2x80x99 variety, the xe2x80x98Sir Prizexe2x80x99 variety. (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,709), the xe2x80x98Lamb Hassxe2x80x99 variety (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,753), and the xe2x80x98N4(-)5xe2x80x99 variety (U.S. Plant patent application No. 10/096,581, filed Mar. 14, 2002) in view of its distinctive combination of characteristics.
The new xe2x80x983-29-5xe2x80x99 variety is believed to be well suited for the production of quality avocados under commercial growing conditions.